Ketogenic Brownies | Flourless and Fudgy

What makes the perfect ketogenic brownies? I say it’s when a piece of chocolate cake and a piece of fudge make a baby…that’s the perfect brownie.

The recipe has to call for just the right ratios of butter to flour and chocolate to sweetener. In my book, The Ultimate Guide to Low-Carb Baking you will find two brownie recipes. The first is cream cheese based and called “Pure Cacao Brownie”. The second, “Chocolate Avocado Brownie” is exactly how it sounds – a chocolate avocado batter baked in a brownie pan. Cream cheese and avocado are essential ingredients that these recipes will be moist. Can keto brownies be made any other way? Too many ketogenic brownies are dry and crumbly, overly dense and too bitter. I’m intrigued by the perfect keto brownie and continue to hunt for the best way to tackle this traditionally gluten-infused, sugar rich dessert.

Tristan likes to poke fun at my saying even though I have a perfectly good recipe that I know works, I’d rather spend time making up a new recipe. I understand his perspective, he just wants to eat good food and sees my tenancy to adjust the technique, change the ingredients, and manipulate the ratios of ingredients as a risky endeavor that threatens his taste buds.

I remain intrigued with possibilities…

After experimenting with psyllium husk powder in The Best All-Purpose Keto Bread and a few other bread and cookie recipes in The Ultimate Guide to Low-Carb Baking, I wondered, how can I use that in a brownie? Psyllium husk powder gives a delightfully spongy, chewy texture. It is a unique ingredient, unlike anything else. If you’ve used it before, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

It took a few days of stewing ideas in my head before getting the complete picture. Suddenly the moment struck me, I grabbed a pen and paper to scrawl my notes down. With a new recipe, freshly written in my own shorthand, i entered the kitchen to begin pulling out bowls.

Less than an hour later, I emerged triumphant!

The smell of dark chocolate lingered in the air. My fingertips were oily from handling squares of oven fresh ketogenic brownies. The spongy, fudgy texture gave way slightly when my fingers picked up a piece from the dish. I knew I had a winner.

Chewy Ketogenic Brownies

Psyllium husk powder mitigates the problem of an overly dry brownie. It absorbs the water of the recipe and retains it during the baking process, resulting in a moist, chewy chocolate brownie. The taste of these ketogenic brownies is balanced, not too sweet, not too bitter. The fibrous psyllium provides a source of fiber, which bulks up the batter and gives a density to the recipe that would be missing if it was only eggs and cacao paste.

Portion Control with Nutrient Dense “Sweets”

Just one or two pieces were filling for me, making them easy to portion control. I felt satiated after eating them. When I eat “sweets” or highly palatable foods like ketogenic brownies, I like to have them after a meal of protein and fats. Eating a normal meal beforehand, gives me the nutrients I need and curbs the impetus to accidentally overeat the desserts later on.

Building recipes around wholesome, nutrient dense foods is a passion of mine. I dedicated years of experimenting, testing, and refining hundreds of recipes that are now collected in my two cookbooks, The Ketogenic Edge Cookbook and The Ultimate Guide to Low-Carb Baking. I feel so grateful to be able to eat this way. Combining health fats, gut nourishing psyllium, and magnesium rich cacao provides a number of benefits to the body. Every bite is nourishment to my body and mind.

Fill a small saucepan with a few inches of water. Make your own double boiler by placing a heat safe bowl in the pot. It should rest above the water. Look up pictures and/or directions if you need a better idea on how to do this. Melt the coconut oil and cacao paste together in the bowl over medium-low heat.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla extract in a separate medium bowl.

In a second bowl, combine Lakanto, cacao powder, psyllium husk, and salt.

In a third bowl, mix the baking soda and vinegar. Let it fizz up and set aside.

Pour the melted oil and cacao into eggs. Whisk well. Add the dry ingredient in. Mix again. Add the baking soda and vinegar. Continue to mix, smash out any clumps. Finally, add the boiling water. Mix the batter until smooth.

Grease an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Transfer the batter in the pan, make sure it is evenly spread. Bake for 30 minutes, until the center is firm, the edges pull away from the pan. Test by placing a toothpick in the center and check that it comes out clean.